The Hand of God (IC)

[Conquerer_Man]

"I dunno," was Wallace's responce to Jacy's question. He really didn't know if anything had happened, but he had a feeling that something might have. It wasn't his place to speculate as to what, it was his job to blow things up, as one might put it. Pulling a pen out of his jacket pocket, Wallace began chewing on the end. He had to have something to put in his mouth, as a fix. Better he guessed than actualy smoking.

"Something probably did happen, but I wasn't there so I don't know what," Wallace answered Jacy's question in full, "perhaps you should ask her personaly if something happend, of course after she's done with what ever she's done doing."

[DreamingForever]

"I suppose your right." She whispered. She was almost positive that something had happened. And she was also positive that Elle would want to be alone.

Jacey turned to Wallace and raised an eyebrow. "So Wallace, are you working on anything new?" She asked, a smile pulling on the corner of her lips.

Jacey supposed she needed to leave soon. She wanted to farm today and she still hadn't had breakfast, but she was enjoying talking to Wallace to much to leave.

[towers]

“I’m all done here Maze how ‘bout you?” A man’s voice echoed in the sublevels of the large city.

Maze snapped out of is train of thought and looked up at Murphy. “Go up without me. I still got to look around.” He told the older gentleman. Murphy shrugged his shoulders. “Maintenance will be here in a few hours to pick you the broken bot, Captain wants you out before they get here,” He said before turning around and headed back to the lift. “Come on you metal menace.” Murphy said to the police bot that accompanied him.

Maze looked up at the city above and then down at the city below. Hell of a place to be; between two cities. One is rotting from the inside out and the other is barely holding on to the current status quo. Maze didn’t distinguish which city was which. Something stuck out like a sore thumb to the young detective; the Rebels have managed to crawl their way to the surface before, but this time they tripped on an alarm, probably on their way to the elevator that he used to get down here. Maze walked further into the sublevels, to where the alarm was activated. Ether someone was on their first mission, or this was a new area that connected the two cities. Maze looked around some more.

He was just a few feet from the hidden elevator that Ella and her men went up. He was just seconds away from discovering and destroying any hope the rebels had of reaching the surface anytime time soon. Maze knew it was around here, he knew if he continued looking he would have a good chance of finding the elevator. A discovery like that would warrant a promotion. Yet, despite is ambitions, Maze stopped looking. He thought about how boring his job had become recently, and for his own selfish reasons; he wanted them to reach the surface. At least then there would be some action for once. Maze knew what he was thinking was treason, but technically he wasn’t in the city, so this one time doesn’t count. He stood there for several more minutes; thinking about how is his life was good enough.

[Conquerer_Man]

"Always, I've been constructing a recoilless rocket projectile tube and the ordnance that goes with it, when it's done it'll be great," Wallace explained in an almost excited manner. This was the stuff Wallace was great at. So when someone asked him about it he, as some would put it, would start to "Geek" out and just go on this long tirade about it.

"So far I've got the launcher part, it's this long and the projectile is about this wide in diameter and this wide in length," Wallace gestured with his hands showing the dimensions he just described. His eyes got wide just thinking about it. "You'll hold it like this," he pantomimed that he was cradling the device in his arms, holding it like one would if they where hip firing a machine gun or assault rifle.

"The explosion will be great and when we can manufacture enough for everybody, it'll drive the fear of God into those goosestepping fascist ..." Wallace didn't finish his sentance, partly because he was caught up in his imaginiation of getting to use his device and partly because the last word wasn't gentalmanly to utter infront of a lady.

[DreamingForever]

Jacey’s eyes were wide and amused as he continued to describe his newest weapon. She had never seen Wallace seen so happy and carefree. He looked like a little boy. It was nice to see him let go, even if just for a few minutes.

She snapped back to attention when he paused over his curse word. Jacey laughed and shook her head. “Don’t worry about me, I’m a big girl.” She grinned at him, gray eyes twinkling. “Well that seems amazing. Maybe one time I could see it?” She questioned, her voice relaying her curiosity. “I never get to see anything interesting since I’m so ‘young and a little girl.’” She quoted, hands making quotes in the air.

One of the men had yelled at her a few weeks ago, saying she shouldn’t worry her pretty little head about grown up things. The nerve of that man! She was probably more mature and knowledgeable then that man had been. The comment had stuck with her and still angered her to this very day.

[towers]

Pandora sighed as she closed the leatherback book. It was difficult to read and even harder to understand, but she knew it was important to try. Today’s reading was about forgiveness, something that didn’t come so easily t the young girl. As she sat there on her bed, she wondered how the resistance was doing in the old city. She made contact with a few of them a couple of month’s back, which was the last she heard from them. Pandora longed to go under New York and explore the runes of the old city, but it was too dangerous and they needed her skills on the surface.

Pandora placed the book back in its hiding spot in her nightstand and stood up; stretching her arms out above her head and letting out a high moan. If she wasn’t allowed to go down to the old city at least she can snoop around the government office that she worked at. Just then her small comlink vibrated violently on her nightstand. It was her work; they needed her to come in today. What great timing. Pandora walked over her closet and pulled out her grey jumpsuit.

Custodians had a very different job then they did a long time ago; instead of cleaning out the bathrooms or taking out the trash, Custodians were the care takers of the robot that were off line and a sort of ‘tech support’ for malfunctioning devices such as retinal scanners and cameras. However, they still retained their low status in today’s society. Their jobs were behind the scenes so to speak, which allowed Pandora a lot of leeway. The young girl quickly got dressed and headed out the hallway.

[rachelbeann]

Charlie listened to the door shut, signaling Brian's arrival. The screen stared back at her in blatant rebellion - the same ten-word sentence from the night before.

Brian slipped behind her chair, eyeing the screen. Smart enough not to mention her progress, or lack of it. She smiled.

"So, want to hear the latest office gossip?" He brushed her hair from her shoulders, massaging her neck. Charlie made a small noise, letting her shoulders go slack.

"I'm sure you mean to tell me," she said.

Brian chuckled, fingers working at the celery-stalk muscles of her neck. Occupational hazard of whittling half your life away at a computer desk. "Something freaky happening with a few of the bots. Self-destruct sequences, weapons disabled - stuff like that."

Mmmmm. "And?"

"And?" he parroted, chuckling. "Exploding bots; tell me that's not good reading."

Charlie snorted. "Since when do I get to decide what's good reading and what isn't?" She shut down her computer, leaning back. Her voice was more bitter than she'd intended, and she checked her tone with a sigh. "Anyway, it sounds like a custodial problem to me."

"Just thought it was a story, that's all," he said. Unruffled.

Brian's hands drifted lower, rubbing circles into her back. Charlie willed herself not to lean into the touch. If she were honest, things like this only made her feel guiltier - the little things, the back rubs and notes and conspiratorial smiles that spoke of a sincerity on his part she was loathe to admit. And now the tip, that innocent comment about bots, as though journalists actually hunted for material anymore.

More than anything, that was what made her consider the silly lead. Guilt. But even as Brian drifted over to the wall to summon some food for dinner, she was turning the words over in her mind. She was blocked on the current piece anyway - why not follow some innocent gossip?

Crap. She flipped through her planner and made sure she didn't have anything planned for the next day.

Looked like she would be questioning the custodials.

[Music]

As Brace reached the final floor of the Government building, he exited into the lavishly decorated space. Fake modern artwork hung over the windows, which were adorned with drapes. More luxuries than most had for sure. Even under the new regime, the leaders of society were priviledged.

Entering the office of his father, Brace looked around, his strong frame tensed. It was not normal for his father to meet with him in real time, preferring to communicate through messages and orders.

He caught an unusual sight: several men were seated around the conference table, looking expectantly at him. At the head of his table sat his father. Arian d'Ardeneta. His grey hair contrasted sharply with his pale skin, which was almost healthy-looking with the light shining from the window behind him. "Welcome, Brace," he said in his rasping voice. "My son, the President, the voice of the Federation." What was going on?

He stood, wincing. Now Brace understood something. His father was in pain; it clearly hurt him badly to move. Even he could not master the aging process, which had been a long time coming for the old man. "Father, you're in pain. Sit down." He didn't actually want him to sit down. The sooner he passed, the sooner Brace could take command of the Federation.

Arian stubbornly shook his head. What a soft, weak man. "I invited you here today, Brace, because I'm weak. I'm not immortal. And so I thought that you should meet the governors of each of your states. So here they are." That explained the presence of the twenty other men. They were here to meet him. Beg for his approval, so that they could retain office after his father passed. Snivelling spoilists. He would probably fire them all.

Still, he turned to them all, mentally attatching a tag of geography to each. "Welcome, governors of the Federation. I look forward to meeting each of you in turn." He mentally winced as he realized that he would now be bombarded by them.

.....

The secretary showed Elle back to the office of the leader of the Hand of God. James Harveson. She knew of his cold look of disapproval for failure. Afraid, she walked into the tiny space.

He was seated behind an old card table, laying out a map. "Welcome. And to whom to I owe the pleasure?" he said, glancing up briefly with excited blue eyes.

"Gabriella Thomson." She shifted nervously.

"You were sent on a mission, correct? What do you have to report?"

"A failure. Kevin Harding tripped an alarm. We were attacked by two robots, which caused Kevin to topple from the edge. The other boy and I escaped after disabling the bots."

James looked up, running a hand over his sparse hair. "A failure?" He frowned. "Such a vital mission, too... now we'll have to change the plan..." He was lost in thought for a second. "You may go. Thank you, Elle, for letting me know." Elle left for the lobbey, looking a bit snowballed by the lack of reprimand that she had received.

James still sat in his office. Elle seemed competent enough... just unlucky. Now he needed to see Judah. They had to fix this plan, now that it had gone to hell.

[towers]

Maze eventually made it back on the surface of the city. He had been in the sublevels for so long that the sun hurt his eyes at first. Eventually, his eyes adjusted. And just in time for there was a café across the street. “Perfect.” The detective said with a smile. He had not eaten anything all day and coffee with a pastry sounded like a gift from God. Whoever the hell God is.

Pandora didn’t get to stay in the custodial office for very long. “What!? The sublevels? Why do I need to set up cameras there?” She asked her boss with anger; she was looking forward to gathering information in the office. But Pandora eventually complied, but not without attitude. It wasn’t until she heard that some under city ‘refugees’ attempted to make it to the surface. That was the story around her job anyways. This peeked Pandora interest, she had a good idea that they weren’t ‘refugees’. She knew what to do. She could put a one hour frame loop on the cameras of the passages in the sublevels, that way; the Hand of God would have a better chance of not getting caught. She could also interfere with any other security devices they installed. Pandora was fully excited by the time she reached the sublevels. Finally, this was her big chance to help the rebellion.

It didn’t take long for her to do her job. The cameras were on a loop and the alarm and other devices were properly tampered with. Pandora was all done. But she still didn’t feel satisfied. She looked around the empty sublevels; the other maintenance guts had already left with the damaged droid. There was no way that a refugee could shoot like that. Pandora had to find out how they were able to make it up here. She began looking at the walls for any unusual markings or buttons; anything that seemed like it could active a secret passage.

Several minutes when by and still Pandora did not find anything. It had to be somewhere. The determined girl continued her search until finally, she was rewarded. A portion of the wall shifted down; reviling a large elevator. Pandora stood motionless as she examined it. Was this a trap? She had to find out if this was what she was looking for. She stepped on the lift and pressed a switch; slowly lowering her into the city of runes that awaited her.

[Lulu]

Sahara walked through the living room into the kitchen, towelling her hair half heartedly as she programmed the partical transporter for toast, light and black coffee. The toast materialised, looking black and inedible, the coffee cold. Sighing she gave the machine a kick, she needed to have the damn thing replaced, but generally lacked the funds. Pulling up the zipper of her jumpsuit, she pegged the partical transporter with an angry glare before slamming the door behind her, planning on detouring to one of the cafes before heading down to the mechanics to start work early.

Taking a lucky dip approach, she pressed a random cafe, never able to make up her mind. Lining up for a short time, she bought a bagel and coffee, heading back to the elevator to get to street level. Stepping out onto the street, she turned left around her building, heading to the mechanics at a seemingly glacial pace. She just wasn't keen to go anywhere, she wanted to go somewhere plush and lovely, and drink real coffee in bed and watch old movies. Not that she'd ever done that before, but she'd always figured that coffee and bed were words that simply wanted to be together. With that thought she tripped over her own feet, spilling the coffee all down the front of her jumpsuit and onto the pavement. Well great, perfect, lovely.. Maybe today just wasn't her day to drink a rubbish cup of coffee.

When she made it to work, she turned on the lights. She was the only one there, and would be for the next few hours. Unzipping the jumpsuit, she threw the coffee stained thing into the corner, leaving her in a black singlet and shorts. Grabbing her wiring kit, she lay on her back under a jacked up car, where she'd be sitting for the next few hours until she'd have to get up and put her jumpsuit back on, people would be starting work by then. With a string of expletives that sounded wrong coming out of her mouth, she got to work, loving the fact that time flew by so quickly when she was busy..

[Conquerer_Man]

"You do have to admit you are on the rather short side of the scale," Wallace responded, shrugging his shoulders, "and at eighteen you still have quite aways to go before you get to be called an "adult" but I don't see how that makes you of less value to the Resistance and there's no age limit to the joy that comes from feeling that thud as a rocket races from the tube of a portable launcher." Wallace's eyes seemed to gleem at the thought of firing his baby. Truth be told, it had occured to him that he probably could just find a way to smuggle arms from other countries instead of makeing his own, but no one ever said he couldn't.

"Sometimes though I just wish the guys behind our plans would actually let me use my skills, I'm not just some pretty face that looks good when he's firing a weapon from the hip into a room filled with cop-bots," Wallace sighed and leaned his head back, "I just want to blow things up." Rotating his zippo lighter in his hands, Wallace stared at it blankly.

"Enough about me, di you actualy get to go up on missions, I don't think I've ever seen you up there," Wallace asked as he recalled all the times he's seen Jacy, none of which was in the city above.

[DreamingForever]

Jacey grinned as he once again began fantasising about his weapons. “I guess your right, I am rather short and I’m still young. It’s just, I’d like to feel like I’m actually helping.” Her voice got quiet and she stared at the ground. “My father helped all the time and I’ve never even been up there.” She gestured to the City and sighed.

She patted his hand comfortingly, a small smile on her face. “You just watch, soon they will need your expertise and you’re going to be swamped with helping them.”

She dreamed of the day when she would be called upon and she would be helpful to the Resistance. That day would come, and soon at that.

[Koritai]

Morana

Morana sat out in the garden, inspecting the crops. Originally the garden belonged to Old Man Sam, but he was now too old to do much for himself. Old Man, as Morana often called him, was the one who showed her the ropes when Morana first came to the lower city. She suspected that this was mostly because only a few years before, his daughter died on a mission to the upper city. Needless to say, she failed that mission, but she was pretty green herself and the mission was probably too big for her to handle. Old Man Sam had accepted Morana into his home as if she were his daughter, and in return, Morana helped him out as much as possible.

"How do they look?" Old Man Sam said, his voice was like the creaking of old wood, startling Morana. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." He said leaning on his cane as Morana turned to face him.
"You know, it's really not polite to sneak up on someone like that." Morana said, one brow lifted behind her shades. One could compare her voice to wind chimes and and cellos. "They look pretty good to me." She said answering his question before turning back to the plants.
"You're young enough it shouldn't be too bad to have a little scare every now and then. Good to hear, are you going up any time soon?" Sam asked, he seemed to have a more questions then usual.
"No, why, do we need anything?" Morana asked as she stood up and stretched. She hadn't had any missions nor reasons to go up recently.

Usually when she went up, she stayed for a while, using the jumpsuit she came down in as a cover. She was fairly good at keeping under the radar by appearing as everyone else, but where she stayed was often a difficult part of the job. She was still looking for someone who could put a chip that would confuse the ID readers and produce a false acceptable ID. That would allow her to at least stay some of the hotels for those who come from out of town, usually those were entertainers like Morana was supposed to be and other such traveling careers. At the moment, what she usually did was stay in the middle zone, between the cities, or wing it, which always lead to some rather interesting outcomes.

"Oh no, we're fine, I was just curious is all." Sam said, "Well I'll go back inside then."
"Alright, I'll be out and around, I'll probably go for a walk or something later." Morana said as she turned back to caring for the plants. Sam walked back into their small rundown home, they were lucky enough to have running water and everything else. After awhile she left the garden, leaving the dead leaves she'd plucked down by the earth. She didn't know if it would do the plants any good, but she hoped it would act as some sort of fertilizer. Morana walked around the old New York, her hands in her pockets and her feet padded lightly over the cracked asphalt.

[Music]

((Sorry, everyone. If you've lost interest, it's fine, just post to the OOC that you're quitting. Gotta hate writer's block...)

Elle, exiting the office of her commander, sighed with relief as she realized that she wouldn't be in trouble. She hated to disappoint anyone... then another worried crease crossed her face as she remembered that the plan had still failed, setting back the efforts of the Hand of God. In her preoccupation, she ignored the two people who stood in the Lobby, having wanted to talk to her...

Instead, she headed out toward the rows of crops that Old Man Sam kept watch over, in the middle of the Lower City. The beautiful place had once been the location of Central Park, filled with trees and other areas to hang out and enjoy one's company. Now, however, all the trees on the edges of the area had been chopped down and replaced with fertile topsoil, for the purpose of growing food for the huge organization. After all, there was no other way to provide rations for such a large number of people.

She decided, as a tribute to the Resistance and the God that she had failed, that she would spend the day working in the fields. Normally, only a short amount of time weekly was demanded of the hardworking members of the Hand of God, but Elle was determined to work harder than that today. She approached the field and saw another young woman working as well. Smiling, she said merely, "Is there another pair of gloves around here?"

.....

As Brace walked out of his future office, he sighed and put a hand upon his forehead. There was no way he'd be able to keep up with the demand for answers that the governers of the twenty sectors of the Federation seemed to have. He was only ninteen... why did they think that he held all the solutions to their miniscule problems? His biggest concern was figuring out who his future wife would be.

He got into his Speeder and headed off toward a nearby cafe. Most pedestrians preferred to eat in the cafeterias in their own apartment complexes, but sometimes during the day it was easier to simply find a cafe and eat there. After all, most people had day jobs that demanded lots of hours and work throughout the week.

<What would you like to eat today, Sir?> stated the baristobot in its mechanical tone. "A mocha shot," he said, putting his elbow on the bar counter and rubbing his eyes. He needed more sleep, he decided, as the small but potent coffee drink was passed across the bar to him. As he drained it in one gulp, he realized that the cafe was almost entirely empty - save for one or two people.

[Koritai]

Morana

Morana paused, she'd nearly made it out onto the street for her walk when another woman came up and spoke to her. "Oh yeah, I'm sure Old Man has another pair." Morana said walking a little closer to their home and shouted, "Hey Old Man, have another pair here for our volunteer here?" Old Man Sam looked out the broken window and soon came out with another pair of work gloves. They were in pretty good condition, good sturdy leather that only had a few scratches in it that hadn't quite torn all the way through. "Here we are, ah, Elle, good to see you again." Sam said as he handed over the gloves.

"You know her?" Morana asked Sam with a quizzical look, she'd never seen the girl before.
"Of course I do, I've been here longer then you've lived." Sam snapped, his creaky voice had a certain snap to it. "Elle this is Morana, Morana this is Elle. Morana's been living with me for year or so now, I think." Sam said turning back to Elle, it was always nice to have someone help get the introductions out of the way.
"Nice to meet you Elle, and Sam, it's been way more then a year, it's been, like, 8 years. Jeez, you're really not aging too well are you." Morana said with a grin, she knew Sam would have some sort of smart retort, or he might be too tired today. It always depended.
"You're not looking too good yourself." Sam retorted, and then started walk away as he said, "Well you two have fun."